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Wednesday, July 19, 2017

The Commissioner of the Federal Government for Questions of Sexual Child Abuse, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, has accused the former Regensburg bishop and present Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller of serious failures in dealing with the abuse scandal at the Regensburg Domspatzen.

Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller in his office in Rome.

At the beginning of July, Pope Francis sacked Müller as head of the Congregation for the Congregation of the Faith.

"Under the then Bishop Miller, a comprehensive, pro-active reworking with the involvement of those concerned was unfortunately missed," the online edition of the "Passauer Neuen Presse" quoted the Commissioner on Wednesday.

"Müller always spoke of individual cases, but did not investigate the structural failures," criticized Rörig. "It would be desirable for those concerned that he would at least now apologize for the protracted re-appraisal."

The lawyer, Ulrich Weber, who has been employed by the boys’ choir to deal with the misuse scandal, presented his final report on Tuesday. According to this, over the decades a total of 547 children were victims of physical and sexual violence.

Rörig said in the "Passauer Neue Presse" that it was particularly important that all parties involved in the process were included. "There can be no final line drawn in Regensburg yet." But no one should lean back and think that this was only a matter for the Catholic Church, added the Abuse Commissioner. "The number of cases of abuse has been high for years," said Rörig. "Sexual violence against children continues to take place everywhere, in the family, in institutions, by other young people and children, and increasingly by the digital media."

At the same time, Rörig deplored the lack of willingness of many states to pay into the aid fund for abuse victims. "If all of the 9,000 applications of victims are now processed, the fund will be exhausted," he said. Only three out of 16 federal states have so far paid into the fund. "That's a scandal."

Cardinal Müller makes his displeasure known: in Rome there is a "hypocritical papal devotion" and "courtly behavior". He also has a clear opinion on abuse.

For five years, the former Regensburg Bishop, Gerhard Ludwig
Müller was the Head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. As his
five-year fixed term was drawing to a close, the Pope dismissed him from his
service at the beginning of July. The
reason was not explained by the Vatican. However, political and theological
differences between Francis and the conservative Müller are the main reason.

Müller had criticized the Pope in various respects, for
instance, in the context of the post-synodal papal letter, "Amoris
Laetitia," in which the Pope makes the communion possible for remarried
and divorced persons under certain conditions.

Müller pretends not to know the reasons for the
non-prolongation of his term. But what the decision meant, "everyone can
imagine", he has said now in an interview with the news agency, dpa. He was received by Pope Benedict XVI. Only to
Rome for this office. "You can usually expect that it will last until the
age of 75. But it has now been decreed
differently." For me, the world does not collapse, and I can continue to
do much for the Church. "

#It was true that tensions between himself and Francis had
been "talked about by interested parties". "The Pope has always
assured me, however, that he does not believe these rumours and trusts me
fully."

Criticism of the Pontifex nevertheless, Müller considers to
be constructive. Many people maintain a "hypocritical papal devotion"
according to the rationale: "The Holy Father has an idea, and we follow
this unconditionally and all are full of admiration." But the Pope,
according to Müller, is also only a man: "That means that not everything
he does and says is, from the outset, already perfect and unsurpassable."

Every Catholic, especially every bishop and every cardinal, had
a positive and constructive relationship with the Pope, according to the
Cardinal. "But that is completely different from courtly behaviour and
subterranean machination, against which Pope Francis always spoke."

Among the faithful, he wished for less of a Pope cult.
"There should not be a person-cult and a touch-the-Pope tourism, which is
a bit dangerous in the age of the mass media, so that people now cheer only the
Pope, or that one goes to Rome for sensational pleasure. And then to be able to say, I have seen the Pope
in the first row, very close to him. "

"Priest a priori suspected of abuse"

During his time as Bishop of Regensburg (2002 to 2012), the
cardinal was supposed to have delayed the investigation of the abuse scandal at
the Domspatzen (the Cathedral Choir). He has always denied this. With the
publication of the final report on the scandal, allegations were again voiced
which the Cardinal apparently interprets as a general attack on the Catholic
Church. "It is obvious that the Catholic Church is tackled on this subject
more harshly and that priests are suspected a priori," said the
69-year-old in Rome.

"There are clergymen- let it be lamented before God- that
they have committed such crimes, but that is why one cannot collectively
suspect the others just because they are also priests." The percentage is
even less with regard to the total number of clergy in the world than in the
case of comparable pedagogical professional groups - which of course does not
in any way excuse the offense and nor alleviates the suffering of the victims,
" he said.

Müller refers to a study of the forensic psychiatrist,
Norbert Leygraf from the University of Duisburg commissioned by the German Bishops'
Conference. According to this, paedophilia was diagnosed only in nine out of a
total of 78 priests who had been examined for accusations. The proportion of priests with a sexual
preference disorder in the entire priesthood is not significantly different to
the proportion of those affected by it in the German general population.
However, the question of whether or not sexual assaults by Catholic clergy have
occurred disproportionately frequently cannot be answered "either by means
of extensive US studies or by the present study," wrote the authors in
2012.

Cardinal Müller has been repeatedly criticised for his
unhappy dealings with the misuse of abuse, including the lack of dialogue.
"Some people think they write a letter and get an answer with the verdict
of a defendant," he said. "This is simply not possible, because the
process has a structure and must be carried out according to objective
criteria."

In addition to his responsibilities as a Regensburg bishop, Müller
was, as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, responsible
for the investigation of abuse worldwide. He defends himself against the
accusation that he, as prefect in Rome, also hindered the processing of such
cases. "It is simply not true that we have been negligent in the
prosecution of such crimes, or that due to a lack of workforce," he says.
"The exact opposite is the case." The Congregation has always
represented the zero-tolerance line despite some attempts to interfere from
outside.

There are great prejudices against Catholic clergy regarding
celibacy, according to Müller. "It is considered, when someone is
voluntarily living in continence, he has to get rid of his feelings
somewhere. Even if that were true, a
normal person would look for a relationship with a woman rather than a
child."